


Waiting For Happily Ever After

by SamaraKurtofsky



Category: Glee
Genre: 2020, AU after OMW, COVID-19, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kurtofsky10years, M/M, Romance, parenting, quarantine fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27476353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamaraKurtofsky/pseuds/SamaraKurtofsky
Summary: Written for Day 8 of Kurtofsky Week.During the 2020's world pandemic, Kurt and Dave, happily married with two children, realize what is important, and that miracles happen even during the most difficult time.
Relationships: Kurt Hummel/David Karofsky, Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21
Collections: Kurtofsky Week - Ten Year Anniversary





	Waiting For Happily Ever After

**March 2020**

Kurt stifled a cry, as he covered his face with his hand, sniffing silently. He watched on the TV screen what looked and felt like the end of the world. Men in protective suits, elderly in the hospital, surviving on oxygen from artificial respirators. Closed shops, people too scared to go out to the streets. It was forbidden to hug, meet, or even talk closely. It was like being in the middle of a dystopian novel.

There was terror, and it could be felt in the air - in the faces of those on their way to work, in the empty shelves of supermarkets, in the disarming possibility that health workers would have to choose who was most likely to survive. The virus was silent, claiming victims among the weakest  and quite a few perfectly healthy people, making it unpredictable. They all knew it wouldn't be over soon.

Dave sat down next to him, stroking his knee. He took the remote from Kurt's hand and turned the screen off. "It will be over. It can't last forever.”

Kurt rested his head on Dave's shoulder and let himself be held by him. His hair was still wet after a quick shower. Kurt sighed, breathing the scent. “It looks like a nightmare. I just want to wake up and forget it."

Dave didn't answer, he just nodded with his eyes low while his hand moved in circles on Kurt's back. "Everything will be fine. I promise you everything will be fine."

Kurt clung to those words with all his strength. He knew Dave couldn't possibly know what would happen in the future. He knew Dave just wanted to make him feel better. Still, he loved the sound of these words, his support.

In the kitchen, Alice and Alex were playing inside the playard. Alice with colored cubes, stacking them on top of each other to create towers of red, blue, yellow, and green, and Alex startling himself into laughing with one of his pop-up toys.  Kurt looked at them - innocent, unaware of what was going on outside.

The perfect, beautiful image of tomorrow.

* * *

Alice loudly blew on the three pink candles standing on a surface of the chocolate and strawberry icing of a big and inviting cake. She wore a yellow dress with long sleeves, and a pair of shiny shoes bought for the occasion from a website that Kurt had discovered on Facebook. Her cheeks turned a tender blush, and with two puffs, the room filled with a loud applause.

Kurt snapped pictures from every angle using his cellphone, and Dave grabbed Alex's little hands gently, banging them against each other.

"Happy birthday, Princess," Kurt kissed her cheek and adjusted the bib.

"Can I open my presents?" Alice smiled, biting  her knuckles. She had the adorable look of a porcelain doll - long lashes framing  her large blue eyes, a mass of light brown curls that reminded Kurt of his own mom.

Dave shook his head, wiping Alex's drool with a napkin. He was banging his hands on the table and babbling.

"Not until we've eaten the cake."

Kurt laughed and sliced it into six equal slices. He placed three in the refrigerator and divided one in half. He removed the candles, placing them on a separate plate near the sink. There were gifts wrapped in paper decorated with unicorns and colorful candy, resting on the corner of the sofa. Kurt had sprayed sanitizer on every surface, and the smell of alcohol was still recognizable in the air. It seemed to have become a constant during those days.

He had explained to Alice how to wear her face mask, although at first, she kept trying to move it below her nose to breathe better. Dave had taught her how to properly wash her hands using a freshly invented nursery rhyme, one that Alice loved to hum like the theme song to one of her favorite cartoons.

It was working, they were making it work.

The situation outside was tragic, but they tried not to scare the children. Alex was only nine months old, and he didn't understand what important historical moment he was living in. He ate, played, and slept. Kurt would have loved to be also able to live in the same illusion.

He wondered if his children would have a future, if they would ever have the same experiences, dreams, hopes as those born before them. It was a pessimistic thought, which kept him awake and which gave him no peace.

"I want the strawberry, Papa!" Alice pointed at one of them, and Dave, wearing gloves, grabbed it by the leaf.

"Do you want to see something?" he asked, with a wink.

Alice nodded repeatedly, and Dave carved a rose for her out of the strawberry.

Kurt's heart melted, looking at them.

They could take everything away from them, but not hope and certainly not love.

* * *

The computer screen lit up on Rachel's toothy smile. She swore a light candy pink T-shirt and her hair was pulled in two braids that gave her the jaunty look of a teenager. “Oh my God, Kurt! They’ve grown so much in just two months. They’ll be taller than me in no time!" she exclaimed, looking at Alice and Alex.

"If you saw how much they eat, you wouldn't be so surprised," replied Kurt, raising an eyebrow.

Dave laughed heartily. Alice had one of her arms wrapped around his neck, while the other was clutching Cindy, the doll that Kurt had chosen for her birthday. She loved that doll so much she even took it to the bathroom with her.

Alice told Rachel everything she had eaten for breakfast and lunch, and Kurt was amazed at how accurate her memory was.

“Do you know, Aunt Rachel? I learned how to wear my mask. It was too big, kept falling, but Daddy made me a beautiful one for me now. It’s pink with butterflies."

Kurt nodded, smiling. "True . I altered an adult pattern down toddler size." He kissed Alex's forehead, who was sleeping curled up on his chest. He had dark hair and the cutest, little round nose. He was adopted, but Kurt swore he reminded him of Dave most of the time.

"Can I show you?" Alice asked Rachel, with a faint note of shyness.

“Of course, sweetheart. I bet it's very beautiful" Rachel giggled, as Alice dropped the doll on Dave's lap and ran into her bedroom. “She's always so lively, Kurt. She reminds me of myself as a child.” She tucked a lock of chocolate brown hair behind her ear, and before Kurt could protest that statement, Quinn appeared behind Rachel, hugging her and kissing the back of her neck. She was wearing a t-shirt barely wet with sweat, and had a towel tight around her neck. Her blond hair was tied in a ponytail.

“Hey,” she smiled sweetly at Kurt and Dave, wiping her sweaty forehead. “You know? Since the quarantine began, the air is much more clean outside. I jogged behind the house for a while and made friends with a stray cat,” she laughed. "How are you, guys?"

Dave shrugged. “We manage. The situation isn’t the best, but we try to not focus on it."

Kurt felt reassured by the sure tone of his voice. “At least we don't have to worry about school, yet. Let's just hope it ends soon."

Alice went back to the living room wearing her special pink mask. “Hi, Aunt Quinn. Look at my new mask!" She made two turns, taking the opportunity to show off her polka dot skirt and her blue blouse.

“It looks lovely on you, Alice,” Quinn said, blowing her a kiss. "Can't wait to get to do your hair again." They looked so much alike that it was  easy to see she was her birth mom.

On tiptoe, Alice rested her elbows on the table. "Can you do my hair like Cinderella's at the dance?"

"Disney marathons, I see," laughed Rachel.

Kurt nodded. “All the movies that have princesses in it. And  _ Wreck it Ralph _ .  Alex loves the soundtrack."

As if he heard Kurt, Alex moved slightly, snoring sweetly.

Kurt didn't tell Rachel and Quinn about how Dave had sung "Beauty and The Beast" to him the night before, and how they had danced and laughed and exchanged passionate kisses until the crack of dawn. It was one of those memories he would always carry with him, as long as he was alive.

"All we can do in this situation is keep trying to find something to do and reinvent ourselves. Also spending quality time with family." Rachel smiled knowingly at Quinn, who kissed the corner of her lips.

"I heard about the YouTube channel," Kurt said. "Maybe I can just do something like that. Give fashion advice to a bunch of people that can't even go out."

Quinn put her hand to her chin. thoughtfully. “It started out as a game, you know? But in the first week, we had nearly nine thousand followers - it was crazy. To think that once upon a time the only people to follow Rachel's MySpace were me, Brittany, and Santana. And just to make fun of her." Quinn gently kissed her girlfriend's cheek.

“They even talked about it on TV, ” Rachel explained, excited. “Not Myspace.” She rolled her eyes, looking at everyone's confused faces. “They call us the golden couple of YouTube. You absolutely have to listen to our version of “I Will Always Love You.” Quinn started laughing in the middle of it because our cat was jumping on the keyboard."

They all laughed together, forgetting the screen that divided them. It felt like a normal morning of March, and Kurt couldn't help but look at his daughter improvising ballerina moves and imagined her dancing among the blossoming flowers and sun, surrounded by the breeze of a summer he wanted to feel on his skin.

* * *

Dave sat in front of the computer screen, a notepad close to him next to a cup of coffee that had gone cold.

Kurt entered the room with a tray. He thought he'd share the last piece of cake left with Dave. "How’s it going?" He placed it down on the desk and noticed that Dave was wearing rectangular-framed eyeglasses. He licked his lips, thinking of how handsome he was.

Dave smiled at him. "Same as usual. It's not that much different than working in the office. I just love that at home I can see you more often. I could easily get too used to it." He met Kurt's gaze, and they both felt a shiver go up their spine. "Hey."

Dave still blushed like a little kid, and Kurt adored it.

He sat on Dave's lap, kissing him passionately. His mouth tasted of coffee and his hair smelled of his  fragrant shampoo. “Hey. I like the glasses. "

Dave laughed, kissing his neck. "I think if  you’re a little persuasive, I can wear them more often. The kids?"

“Sleeping soundly in their room.” He opened the buttons of Dave's shirt slowly, one by one.

They turned off the lights, wrapped in each other's arms.

* * *

When Dave was not at home, Kurt couldn't stop obsessively looking at the time, like it was  his  personal enemy. He tried to distract himself by playing with the children, rearranging clothes according to color, dusting and polishing the floor until it looked like a mirror, yet time was inexorable, with its inability to be stopped.

He hated it.

Kurt felt scared, always ready for bad news. The feeling was soothed by Dave's comforting words, which helped him be calm enough to go out when it was Kurt's turn to go to buy groceries. The safety they had both taken for granted seemed to have dissolved, disappeared, and only the distant memory remained, fading day by day.

Kurt sighed, resigned to that state of perpetual anxiety.

The cleaning itself became compulsive. There was the lingering fear that one little mistake could lead to something that couldn't be repaired. He had nightmares about Alice and Alex having difficulties breathing, or Dave testing positive. He was scared of missing his children growing up, or leaving them with a pain similar to the one he felt after losing his mom.

He was checking his temperature multiple times a day, terrorized by the prospect of a cough or a runny nose.

They were all surviving, but it had been so long since he felt like he was living.

Alice was drawing, using watercolors on white paper, and Kurt recognized the lines of a house and those of four figures, three with light-blue rectangles on their faces – masks, he realized. The only girl in the picture wore a pink one. In the background, there was a rainbow, for which she didn't use the right colors, but was beautiful nonetheless.

Alex was playing with a fake phone that made the same sounds as farm animals. He loved to press the cow button and giggled every time.

“Daddy?” Alice looked at him with big, hopeful blue eyes. She was understanding more than a normal three-year-old would, Kurt knew that. He could see the questions forming on her lips, and he wasn't sure he would have liked them.

“Do we disappear when we die?”

Kurt was shaking, trying to not cry in front of her. He was an adult, and he had to be strong. “Yes,” he nodded his head, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. “But we aren't going to die, baby. We just need to be careful, that's all.”

And he wanted to believe that.

When Dave came back, Kurt met him outside on the landing. He sent Dave in to shower and change. He sanitized the food's containers before taking them inside. Dave threw his mask in to be laundered with his clothes. Kurt hugged him tightly, sobbing a little on his shoulder when he came in to help put the items away.

Afterwards, Kurt read  _ Puss in Boots _ to Alice and Alex. She was listening carefully, laying on Kurt’s knees, while he just interrupted him with his adorable  _ bah bah  _ babbling.

Kurt kept the window opened – they said the virus wasn't in the air, and Kurt decided to believe that, indulging in his desire to feel the spring breeze. Despite that, he couldn't stop focusing his attention on the window, as if an invisible monster would try to break in.

Kurt finished the book – there were mostly pictures, but the children loved it. He just focused on the words “happily ever after”. The happy ending of the story.

He repeated those words in his mind.

_ Happily ever after. Happily ever after. Happily ever after. _

* * *

Kurt ended a call and took off his shirt, putting everything he had been wearing into the laundry, despite not having left the house. He had taken to wearing clothes that could be washed and dried over his usual more difficult to launder clothing.

Dave was sitting on the bed, reading an extremely thick book – at least one thousand pages. He was really into crime fiction, while Kurt thought those kinds of stories were just graphically repulsive.

Dave looked up at him. “How's Sam?”

Kurt shrugged, wearing a black tank to sleep. “Mercedes is still in France, at least for another week. He really misses her, and he is worried, too. I can understand why - they said it's really bad there.”

Dave closed the book, placing it next to the bedside lamp. “She’ll be fine. They just need to be sure she isn't sick. Just sit down, baby.”

When Kurt did, he felt like his whole defensive barrier broke down, leaving him in pieces. He started sobbing, wiping his eyes “Do you think I'm crazy? Because that's how I feel. I don't know if it's just the world that is crazy, or it's me.”

Dave hugged him, and Kurt just wet his shirt with his tears. It felt like a very forbidden kind of freedom, to be able to just cry instead of pretend that everything was fine.

“Just let it go, baby, it's okay,” whispered Dave, leaving little kisses on his cheek. “Of course you aren't crazy.”

Kurt looked at him, trying to challenge him. “I've called my dad three times today, and I'm scared that I'll never see him again, that something is going to happen to him. It's like I'm living waiting for the worst. I just want it to stop. I need it to stop.”

Dave ran a hand through Kurt's hair, and Kurt closed his eyes, feeling the soft touch of Dave’s fingers. He inhaled and exhaled, trying to breathe and to stop crying.

“I'm the same, Kurt,” he assured him, using the most sweet and soothing tone of voice. “I keep calling my dad, and I think that if it wasn't for Karen there with him, I would go insane. This is all madness, and we are in the middle of it. We can't avoid it, or change how bad it might become. All we can do is live day by day, as scary as it might be.”

Kurt giggled a little, between sobs. “It really sucks, right? I think that without Carole I would be in an asylum right now.”

They lay together, facing each other. Kurt was using his elbow to support his head. Dave was still caressing his hair, and Kurt couldn't believe that there had ever been a time when he thought he wouldn’t enjoy it.

“It does suck, that's for sure,” Dave answered. “But I have faith. Do you want to know why?”

Kurt nodded slowly, as Dave kissed away his tears. It was a beautiful sensation of sweetness, of warmth, of safety. He had the strong desire for it to last forever.

“I survived once. There was a time where I just wanted to die. You know that. But I didn't. And now I have you.” He caressed Kurt's cheek with his thumb. “You’re my miracle. We have two beautiful children together, and they’re also a miracle. I feel blessed everyday with what we have, and I believe that at the end we will have our happy ending.”

_ Happily ever after. _

Kurt cried again, but this time they were happy tears. “I love you so much.”

Dave giggled, and his eyes were also wet. “I know. Like I said,  _ miracles. _ ”

That moment could be described just as pure beauty.

“Kisses before sleep?”

Dave answered by closing the distance between them, and Kurt sighed into the kiss.

He had to believe in their happy ending. In miracles.

* * *

After a terrible nightmare, from which he recalled long corridors of a hospital, doctors holding long needles, and the sensation that he and Dave would test positive and put the children in danger, Kurt woke up covered in sweat. He tried to fall asleep again, turning in the bed, until he gave up and decided to get up and go to the bathroom to wash his face. Luckily, Dave didn't wake.

On his way to the bathroom, he was seized by the strong desire to see that his children were safe. His dream had left him shaken.

Walking on tiptoes, he arrived in front of their door, semi-open. The room was partially illuminated by a night light in the shape of a panda, and Kurt could see the toys still scattered on the floor – a couple of teddy bears and a train made of wood.

He watched Alex sleep in the crib, his stomach rising and falling at a steady pace. Kurt straightened the covers and stroked his small, chubby finger and his lovely face.

Alice was curled up on the bed, a little bundle of innocence and sweetness. He could only see her curly head sticking out of the blanket.

Dave was right. It was all a miracle. It was there, in front of his eyes.

He  went  back to his bed, face fresh again, and hugged Dave from behind, falling asleep easily.

  
  


**March 2022**

In the streets of New York, some still wore face masks, even if the virus, after the mass vaccinations, seemed to be just a bad memory. In the past three months, the world had been counting the losses and celebrating the  victories .

The second wave had been devastating, and the consequences were still being paid both economically and socially. People were still adjusting to reclaiming the life the pandemic had stolen from them. It was a gradual process, which perhaps would last for years.

Kurt was feeling lucky because although he was still living in the throes of occasional nightmares and anxiety attacks, his kids weren't seriously affected, being too young to realize what had really been happening.

Alice was now going to kindergarten regularly, and she learned to spend time with other children her age. She liked to talk, and had a rich vocabulary for a girl so young. Kurt could see a mini Quinn growing up in front of his eyes - she had a certain elegance, despite being only five, and she was a natural born leader.

Alex had discovered the beauty of outdoor games - getting dirty with mud, rolling in the grass, playing under the sun. He loved animals, and Dave had decided to buy him two hamsters. Alex watched them run on the wheel as if enchanted, while Alice, like a good older sister, helped him feed them and change their water every day.

The world was healing, and so were people. Family time had diminished, but it finally seemed safe to go outside.

* * *

Dave's office had a beautiful window, overlooking the city skyline. Leaning against the glass, Alice said she felt like she was flying.

Kurt stayed behind, watching his husband turn off the laptop and gently pull Alex close enough to him to pick him up and hug him.

"Papa!" He grabbed a lock of Dave's hair, pulling it lightly, and Dave let him do it, too caught up in the moment of happiness.

The past year aged him a little, after  Paul had tested positive for the virus and spent months in intensive care. Nobody could visit him, and Dave and Kurt spent nights near the phone, waiting for news that seldomly came. They thought they would lose him when the pneumonia got worse, and he didn't respond well to the medications. It was a nightmare they  hadn’t been ready to deal with, one that nearly destroyed them.

Paul luckily got out, after almost four mouths - frail and scrawny, but alive.

“Are you ready for your first game?” Dave asked Alex, kissing his cheek.

Alex nodded profusely, his little hands still gripping Dave's hair. “Yeah!”

Kurt noticed a series of photos on Dave's desk - Alice's first birthday, Alex's birth, their honeymoon in San Francisco. He felt warmth and love. A pure feeling of contentment that was filling his entire being.

“Can we stop for french fries?” Alice asked, still entranced by how New York City looked from that perspective. She wore a soft pink long-sleeved shirt with a large red heart with a pink horse in the center,  white tights, and a cute, pink pleated plaid skirt. She had on white leather boots with pink laces, reminiscent of the Docs that Kurt was still fond of wearing. She inherited her love for scarves from Kurt as well– she insisted on wearing a  lightweight pink and white one because she loved the pattern and how soft it was.

“We will, I promise, but we need to get going now,” Dave kissed Kurt on the lips, and Alice trotted over to them, grabbing Kurt's hand.

Dave turned the light off, and Kurt had a sudden sensation of a deja-vu. When he realized why, he felt his eyes getting wet.

“What is it?” Dave asked, maybe a little worried, despite Kurt never losing his smile.

Kurt kissed him again, just a peck on the lips. “I just realized we dreamed of this, ten years ago.“

Realization crossed Dave's face, as they both flashed back to the day they imagined together a future they didn't know would be their own, the first time they held each other's hands as if it were the only thing that mattered.

“Miracles do happen. You were right,” Kurt giggled, feeling so _in love._

Alice looked between them, interested. “What are you talking about, Daddy?”

He smiled at her and stroked her long, curly hair. “Oh, it's a long story, sweetheart.”

Dave held Alex tight. The toddler was too caught up in looking around to focus on what people were saying. Everything looked new and exciting to him – the elevator, the corridor plants, Dave's tie. He didn't talk much, although he could. He preferred to observe and examine everything. He was the most curious child Kurt had ever seen. One of Kurt’s favorite things was watching his mind at work as he silently worked to help Alice put puzzles together on their bedroom floor.

“A story about love. One with a happy ending.” Dave put his other arm around Kurt, who nodded at him with a smile that reached his eyes, making them sparkle like diamonds. His cheeks were flushed in the most adorable way.

“Definitely a happily ever after.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I wouldn't be able to do this without Elle Delajoie being the amazing beta, English teacher, and person that she is. Thank you, Elle!


End file.
